"Girl power" inventors on hand for Museum Day at Old Colony in Taunton

Charles Winokoor Taunton Gazette Staff Reporter @cwinokoor

Wednesday

Sep 26, 2018 at 11:08 AMSep 28, 2018 at 5:08 PM

TAUNTON — Museums preserve the past. Inventors look to the future.

An event held Saturday at Taunton’s Old Colony History Museum combined those two schools of thought.

Each year the Smithsonian magazine, the official publication of the Smithsonian Institution, sponsors what it calls Museum Day.

The national event invites museums and cultural institutions across the country to participate by offering Museum Day tickets — each of which provide two people free admission to any participating museum or institution.

This year’s theme was Women Making History.

In the case of Old Colony History Museum — which according to Executive Director Katie MacDonald has participated in the event the past five years — it served a dual purpose.

For one thing it was incentive for new visitors to come to Taunton and peruse the Church Green museum.

But it also showcased the talent and budding imagination of seven elementary and middle school girls — all of whom previously competed in a citywide competition known as Invention Convention.

MacDonald said the museum participated in last January’s Invention Convention, where it demonstrated how people in the colonial era used to make butter.

“It’s a great fit,” she said, referring to this past weekend’s partnership.

MacDonald said the Taunton museum on a typical Saturday attracts a dozen or so visitors. She says that number more than doubled during the previous year’s Museum Day.

She also credits her Community Programming Coordinator Saria Sweeney for discussing with Betsy Rabel the idea of the girls and their inventions being the centerpiece of this year’s female-themed Museum Day.

Rabel, who works as a state police forensic scientist, created the Invention Convention competition four years ago. She’s also the director of the non-profit Curiosity Factory.

She said the girls who participated Saturday exemplified what she calls “girl power.”

Rabel said she initially asked 10 girls if they were interested. But she says soccer games and other activities prevented all of them from making the commitment.

“Some of them came here straight from games,” Rabel said.

Helene O’Brien of Stoughton said it was because of Museum Day and the free-admission tickets that she and two friends for the first time visited Old Colony History Museum.

“It looked the most interesting. I love old oil paintings,” O’Brien, 86, said, referring to information about the museum posted on its website.

“And I’m impressed with some of these inventions. They’ve got some good ideas,” she added.

LaValle, 13, thinks there’s a market for a portable, dual air conditioner and heater to keep pets safe inside cars while their owners are shopping or running errands.

“It would run on solar power and have an alert if there’s a problem that would show up on your phone,” she said.

O’Brien said she thinks a sign that can be attached to a car window letting passersby know that the car is equipped with the device — so that people don’t assume the worst and call 911 — would also be helpful.

Otherwise, she said, “That’s a nice little invention.”

Museum Day began in 2005 as a celebration of Smithsonian magazine’s 35th anniversary, according to an email sent to the Taunton Daily Gazette in response to a question.

Just over 200 museums participated and the event attracted roughly 2,500 people, it states.

This year more than 450,000 tickets were downloaded as compared to 250,000 tickets in 2017, according to the email — which also states that Museum Day 2018 “included over 1,500 museums of every type representing all 50 states.”